2017's bestselling books in China
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E-mail China Daily, December 19, 2017
As 2017 draws to an end, what books have you read this year?
Amazon China unveiled the bestselling books in China for 2017 last Friday, giving an insight into Chinese people's reading habits. The list included bestsellers both in paper books and e-books on Kindle.
The first three places for paper books were taken by Japanese author Keigo Higashino's Miracles of the Namiya General Store, late Chinese writer Yang Jiang's We Three and Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin.
Reading preferences on the portable Kindle, however, are a bit different. The top three most popular paid e-books are: Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin's The Three-Body trilogy, Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Keigo Higashino, and The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.
One notable takeaway from the list: Miracles of the Namiya General Store has made it into the top 10 of these two rankings for four consecutive years after its Chinese edition was first published in 2014.
Hit films and TV shows prompt book sales
Popular films and TV series have prompted a surge in sales of books, such as In the Name of the People and Murder on the Orient Express.
In the Name of the People, an anti-corruption novel by Chinese author Zhou Meisen, ranked fourth on Kindle's paid e-books list, thanks to its smash TV adaptation, aired from March to April. Statistics show purchases of the book's digital version increased 24-fold three months after its screening, and printed copies surged twelvefold.
Jia Pingwa becomes most influential Chinese author overseas
On Friday's list, Amazon named Chinese author Jia Pingwa as the "most influential Chinese author overseas."
In August, the e-commerce giant published Happy Dreams, the English version of Jia's novel Gaoxing. The paper version and e-book were released simultaneously, enabling readers in more than 180 countries to have access to the novel.
Published in 2007, Happy Dreams depicts the bitter experience of Chinese migrant worker Liu Gaoxing who comes from Shaanxi province to seek a living in a city.
A nation of readers
Chinese digital readership has continued to grow.
Statistics show China's digital readers have surpassed 300 million and paid online content has become a new growth point in the country's cultural consumption.
The Chinese Academy of Press and Publications said the average Chinese adult read 7.86 books in 2016, a mild increase from 2015. Among them, 4.65 were paper books and 3.21 e-books. Do your habits measure up? How many books did you read this year, and how did you read them?
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